Former officer Peter Clarke: probe 'deliberately thwarted'

News International "deliberately tried to thwart a criminal investigation" into phone hacking allegations, a former senior Met Police officer has said.

Appearing before the Home Affairs Select Committee, Peter Clarke said he was "certain that they had something to hide" and that there was a "complete lack of co-operation" from the media organisation.

The former deputy assistant commissioner oversaw the original investigation into phone hacking following the arrests of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire in 2006.

About 11,000 pages of evidence were seized at the time, but Mr Clarke said that he could not justify the resources that would have been needed for an "exhaustive analysis" because of the need to focus on counter-terrorism operations.